


Seulement Dans Nos Rêves

by WritLarge



Series: Inception Bingo 2018 [2]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: F/M, Inception Bingo, Mal lives, Parallel Universe, Saito pines, extractor Mal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-15 22:04:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15422577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritLarge/pseuds/WritLarge
Summary: “Je sais.” She regards him warily. “If I were to do it, how can I know that you will keep your promises?”“You can't. But I can. Take a leap of faith with me, Ms. Cobb. I do so dislike disappointing beautiful women.”She raises an elegant eyebrow at him and then gives him a curt nod.





	Seulement Dans Nos Rêves

Mallorie Cobb is as exquisitely beautiful as he remembers. Saito watches the pair cross the roof, just as Nash had said they would. She sees him first, eyes flicking between Saito and Nash in surprise.

“He sold you out. Thought to come to me and bargain for his life…” She frowns, though he can tell she’s unsurprised by the betrayal. One of his men holds out a pistol for her to take. “So I offer you the satisfaction.”

Ms. Cobb makes a moue of distaste, “I think not. Though I have little regard for him, you will let Nash go if you wish to continue this conversation.”

Saito gestures at the men and they pull Nash away.

“They won’t hurt him?”

“No. But I can't speak for your friends from Cobol Engineering.” Saito looks out at the city slipping by.

“What do you want from us?” 

“Inception,” he says, getting straight to the heart of the matter. “Is it possible?”

“Of course not,” the man at her elbow answers. Arthur Cohen, age 28, extraordinarily talented and loyal to a fault. Saito had read his dossier with great interest. He was exactly the sort of young man Saito would have snapped up to work for himself given the opportunity.

“If you can steal an idea from someone's mind, why can't you plant one there instead?”

“Okay, here's me planting an idea: I say to you, "Don't think about elephants." What are you thinking about?”

“Elephants,” he concedes.

“Right. But it's not your idea because you know I gave it to you.”

“You could plant it subconsciously.”

“The subject's mind can always trace the genesis of the idea. True inspiration is impossible to fake.”

Ms. Cobb shifts in her seat, “No, it isn't.”

Ah. “Can you do it?”

“I won't do it.’

“In exchange, I'll give you the information you were paid to steal.”

“No, thank you. I prefer to find my own way to settle with Cobol.” Saito meets her gaze, fierce blue eyes challenging him.

“Very well.” He cannot force her and what little trust he’s been given will be withdrawn if he tries. It will require burning through a number of favours, but there’s another enticement Saito can offer. 

The helicopter sets down next to the jet he’s chartered.

“Tell the crew where you want to go, they'll file the plan en route.” 

Cohen and Cobb look at each other, then move for the door.

“Ms. Cobb? There is one other thing I could offer you.” She hesitates. Good. “How would you like to go home? To America. To your children.”

“How dare you-” She is lovely in her rage.

“I dare because I can deliver.”

“It’s not possible.”

“Neither is inception or so I hear.” Their eyes meet again. There’s no challenge now, only a desperate kind of sadness.

“Mal, he can’t-” but she shushes him in French.

“The idea - how complex is it?”

“Simple enough.”

She frowns, “No idea is simple when you have to plant it in someone else's mind.”

“My main competitor is an old man in poor health. His son will soon inherit control of the corporation. I need him to decide to break up his father's empire. Against his own self-interest.”

“Nous devrions partir. Tu ne peux pas lui faire confiance,” Arthur insists at her shoulder.

“Je sais.” She regards him warily. “If I were to do it, how can I know that you will keep your promises?”

“You can't. But I can. Take a leap of faith with me, Ms. Cobb. I do so dislike disappointing beautiful women.”

She raises an elegant eyebrow at him and then gives him a curt nod.

“Assemble your team. And choose your people more wisely.”

+++++++

He aches. Not only in body but mind, worn and weary with the passage of time. Saito takes in the visitor they’ve brought him. The first in ages.

“So... have you come to kill me?” The woman doesn’t look up, her tangled hair obscuring her face. “I've been waiting for someone to come for me…”

“Someone from your half-remembered dream...?”

Her voice. Something was familiar… he peers at her as she raises her head. Their eyes meet.

“Mallorie?” Can it be? The woman is weathered, tired and filthy, and yet her eyes… He’d always loved her eyes. “Not possible- she and I were… we were…”

What had they been?

He remembers…

The scent of her perfume when she’d pressed against him in the car.

The lilt of her voice, how she’d teased him during planning, eyes sparkling when he confessed to buying the airline to smooth their plans.

The fierceness in her posture that only seemed to strengthen with every challenge they’d faced.

The tears in her eyes, shimmering as she’d apologized over Saito’s wound.

The softness of her skin against his when she’d helped him connect to the PASIV and enter the third level of the dream.

“Living in a dream.” Her words shatter his reverie.

He nods, swallowing the lump in his throat.

“I came back for you... I came to remind you of what you once knew…” Mallorie gestures at the table. Saito follows her gaze down to the polished surface of the table that reflects their faces, images of themselves when they were young. “That this world is not real.”

The top on the table, her totem, continues to spin in perpetual motion. Saito looks between the top and Mallorie.

“Come take a leap of faith with me, Hideki.” There’s gun on the table between them. Death is their escape. “You wouldn’t want to disappoint me after all this time, would you?”

“Never disappoint a beautiful woman,” he rasps.

She smiles and hands him the gun.

Saito wakes on the plane after what feels like a lifetime, the PASIV still connected to his arm. A moment later and Mallorie herself is at his side, pressing a kiss against his cheek. 

“Welcome back, mon cher.”


End file.
